Kate Muir


Kate Muir is a Scottish writer and critic. She was chief film critic of The Times for seven years, and is the author of three novels. She is presently writing a non-fiction book, The Great Menopause Scandal, and producing a menopause documentary for Channel 4 current affairs.

Early life

Muir grew up in Dalmuir, West Dunbartonshire, and attended Westbourne School in Glasgow. At the University of Glasgow, she graduated with an LLB in Jurisprudence and Politics, and later completed a postgraduate journalism diploma at Cardiff University.

Career

Muir's first job was on the Ealing Guardian, and then she worked as a reporter for two start-up newspapers: News on Sunday in Manchester and The Sunday Correspondent in London, before arriving at The Times in 1990 as a weekly interviewer. She was posted to New York in 1992, then Paris in 1995, then Washington D.C. in 1999 as a foreign features writer for The Times. In Paris, she began a weekly personal column in The Times Magazine which continued for 11 years.
In 2010, Muir became the chief film critic of The Times, covering reviews and film festivals. At a Cannes press conference in 2011 her question regarding Nazi aesthetics resulted in a huge faux pas for Danish director Lars von Trier and his subsequent ban as persona non grata from the film festival. During her time as a critic, Muir became a campaigner for Women and Hollywood, which advocates for equality and diversity in Hollywood and the wider movie industry. She also works with Time's Up UK and is on the board of Birds' Eye View, a charity which promotes the distribution of female-led films. Muir left The Times in 2017 to work as a writer and filmmaker.
Muir has written three novels: West Coast, Left Bank and Suffragette City, and two non-fiction books, The Insider's Guide to Paris and Arms and the Woman, about the battle for female equality in the military. She is working on a book The Great Menopause Scandal and a menopause documentary with Finestripe productions in Glasgow for Channel 4 which will be broadcast in 2020. Her next novel will be "Glasgow Girls".

Personal life

Muir has three children and lives with her partner Cameron Scott in London. She was previously married to fellow Times writer and author, Ben Macintyre.

Publications